1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic-component connector that connects an electronic component such as a module joined to an optical waveguide.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, foldable mobile electronic equipments in mobile telephones, laptop personal computers, and the like have a structure in which an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) is provided to a sub case mounted so as to be capable of folding with respect to a main case that has an apparatus controller.
In such a foldable electronic equipment, an FPC (Flexible Printed Circuit) is disposed at the connecting portion between the main case and the sub case, as described in Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2005-117604, for example. This FPC forms a connection between electrical components (modules) such as semiconductor elements that are mounted on the substrates of each of the main case and the sub case, and display information for the LCD is transmitted by an electrical signal from the apparatus controller in the main case to the sub case.
In this type of electronic equipment, an LCD is desired that has an increased number of pixels and large size, and that can display a color image having increased fineness (higher resolution).
With the electronic equipment having the above-described FPC, the amount of information that must be transmitted by an FPC whose transmitting portion is made from copper increases according to the enlargement and increase in fineness of an LCD, and therefore there is a problem that a large amount of noise occurs during transmission, and crosstalk is produced.
In order to solve this problem, a method can be considered that uses an optical signal instead of an electrical signal to transmit the information that is to be displayed in the LCD.
When display information is transmitted optically in this manner, an optical waveguide for guiding light is needed in place of the FPC, and a module such as a photodiode for transmitting and receiving the light of the optical waveguide is also needed.
The module such as a photodiode is mounted by direct-mounting an electrode of the module (optical device) to the predetermined electrode on the substrate as in the optical device disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2000-216412, for example.
In the conventional foldable mobile electronic equipment, when an optical waveguide is used to transmit display information from the main case to the LCD of the sub case, the space in which the optical waveguide or the module such as a photodiode are mounted is preferably minimized in the structure of the mobile electronic equipment.
However, there is no conventional equipment which can achieve this aim and in which an optical waveguide and a module such as photodiode for processing the light of the optical waveguide for an LCD display are directly connected to each other, and there is no conventional connector that enables the module to be removed from the substrate of the sub case for maintenance.